THE Bulawayo High Court will today hear a case in which Zapu leader, Sibangilizwe Nkomo, is challenging the manner in which public hearings into the 1980s Matabeleland massacres are being conducted.
The Gukurahundi public hearings were expected to start last Thursday.
Nkomo filed an urgent High Court application on Saturday to stop the hearings, challenging the proposed hearings as flawed and meant to erase evidence surrounding the massacres.
Yesterday, he told Southern Eye that he was busy preparing for the case to be heard today in court.
In his application, Nkomo said he was challenging a 2019 resolution which authorised traditional leaders to spearhead the hearings.
This followed a meeting between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a group calling itself Matabeleland Collective.
“As a duly registered political party, we are aggrieved by this decision and initiative by the respondents in that it is unlawful,” Nkomo submitted.
“We deem the hearings to be unlawful in that the chiefs, as traditional leaders, have no mandate to lead such a national process.
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“We are of the firm view that chiefs and more particularly the National Council of Chiefs, are unlikely to be impartial and unbiased in the conduct of the process and consequently leading to a regressive outcome.”
Nkomo cited Mnangagwa, Local Government and Public Works minister Daniel Garwe, Chiefs Council president Chief Mtshane Khumalo and the National Chiefs Council as respondents, respectively.
Nkomo noted that the agreement between the Matabeleland Collective and Mnangagwa had no legal foundation.
“Consequently, we have the legitimacy to politically represent the electorate and the generality of the people of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, the affected regions,” he said.
“That translates to the fact that we are entitled to participate in national processes and initiatives of this nature.”
Nkomo said closure could never be found through flawed public hearings.
“Instead, a neutral, impartial and progressive commission can handle a legitimate process in good faith,” he said.
“If this honourable court does not intervene to stop these consultations and hearings, the general population of Matabeleland and Midlands will be robbed in this unlawful process, in turn this may result in discord, hatred, disunity and open wounds as opposed to healing.”
The respondents were yet to file responses to the application by end of day yesterday.
Mnangagwa promised to address the country’s dark past that the late former President Robert Mugabe described as “a moment of madness”.
Mugabe passed on without offering an apology after unleashing the North Korea-trained 5 Brigade to terrorise communities in Matabeleland and Midlands, leaving over 20 000 civilians dead, according to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe.
